March 2005 Archives

Lots of stuff has been going on lately, and I've been a bit sick. Yes, me, sick again during midterms. Whats new about that. It basically happens every semester, every year. But see, this year, I've got big plans for spring break, so I can't stay sick forever.

My photo got an "Honorable Mention" in the International Photo Contest here on campus. Jared somehow got third place in the whole ordeal, and above him were two photos of small children. Go figure, people voted for the small children photos. Its all good though. This is the second year that on of my photos got an "Honorable Mention" so at least I've not fallen in stature for my photos.

Someone stole a duck from our campus hall of science. Every year a class raises ducks and has them imprint on the students. Sadly someone stole a little duck, and this is the sort of big news that happens in a week here at Gustavus.

We all leave tomorrow for our Spring break trip to the coast, and I'm quite sure the webserver will have to be shut down when we do leave. Campus rules. Anyhow if someone does read this we'll be on our way to the coast starting Thursday at 3:30. I'm sure I'll have a bunch of photos to show everyone, as well as some silly stories by the time we come back in 10 days. As long as I'm still alive.

Someone up top at Gustavus got the idea of having a big Music Showcase in the Twin Cities to show off the musical groups here at GAC, and pimp it. Thats right, they worked the crowd well. Anyhow, it was a day spent in a tux, or mostly in a tux, listing to other people play, while I only played about 20 minutes. At least Warren looked snazzy in his suspenders.

We have a prospie in our section from Oregon. He actually likes snow. Yeah, he likes it now.

Only 4 more days until we leave on our big East Coast trip. Should be fun. Good food, good cities, and probably good company. We'll see how it all works out. The downside is that we'll probably have to turn the webserver off over spring break due to campus policies on electronics being on when no one's here.

Thank goodness for the internet for allowing me to watch old TV shows that are still really good, even if I can never find them on TV.

Its an official Snow Emergency here in Minnesota. For only the third time in Gustavus history classes were officially canceled. Heck, the town of Saint Peter gave a general Snow Emergency for the area. This made me feel better for not getting out of bed until noon, and then gave me a overall excuse. So this is why I want to live elsewhere. No one enjoys this much snow and wind and ice. Except Jared, but he's from Wisconsin. And we know how those types act. So I now need to dig my car out, and this photo from outside my window kind of shows you how much snow we got yesterday. To think it was 65 out a week and a half ago. Maybe the east coast will be better.

I've been lucky this week in not getting sick. Ben and Zach have both had a horrible cough this entire week, as well as the rest of campus spreading around something. I've been fortifying myself with the healing power of chicken and red wine. This should be enough. The last thing I want to do is get sick before spring break, which starts next Thursday.

I finally lost a badminton game. I think partially because my partner hit me in the lower back, and also a shuttle went full force into my ear. Yeah, not my best sports moment. Whatever.

The campus International Photo Contest is going on right now. So vote for number #44, which is mine. I did get some nice compliments on it. And as usually, one in every five photos is of a half naked child in a third world country.

I wish I had thought this up. Then I'd have $18,500 right now. Damn bunny.

So I guess I missed out on the whole iMix sensation that the iTunes Music Store has. I must have been sleeping or something. Too bad a lot of my music doesn't show up in the store, and thus, can't be on my iMix. Anyhow I gave it a shot and came up with this little list. Vote me some good ones people.

So I break out the box of wine on Sunday night. I put it on the section table and am about to open it and realize that my shoes are directly below the spout. So I move them a few feet to the right. I then put my cup under the nozzle and turn the nob. Nothing happens. Then I realize thats because a stream of red wine is going out sideways, and into one of my shoes. That right, I managed to get a direct shot into my shoes from the wine box, without trying. So now my right shoe smells like foot and red wine. Or as I call it, the "French Guy" smell. That and the wine was only OK.

Sunday a small string orchestra, me included, played the Seven Last Word of Christ. This being the fourth year I've done this, I was given the job of lighting candles. I did not light myself on fire, just to let you know.

To day being 3/14 we all had pie. Its Pie Day. So Zach, John, Ben, Lee, and I went over to Carl's and had pie with a bunch of people. Yum. Pie. You know its good. Also, Carl is brewing his own beer. Thats a bit odd if you ask me.

I bought the soundtrack from the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MInd off he Apple Music Store. I felt it would go well with the soundtrack to Garden State, which I've been listening to a lot lately. Good music. I mean, I need some new stuff to listen too now that my iPod has a working battery again.

So I guess I've not posted in a long time, but you know, how lazy I can be. You'd think a semester where most of my work is just showing up for class I'd have some more interesting tales to be telling. But that is sadly not true. At least, not true for a couple of more weeks. Thats when the big 202 Road Trip of Decadence on the East Coast happens. So much to look forward to. So many hours of nothingness between now and then when I should be reading books or studying 日本語。日本語をべんきよします。

So I have official word that its snowing in Osaka, right now. Thanks Kat. I mean, come on now. Snow. Blossoming trees. Fricking Japanese food! No damn way! How I miss that fun loving time in Japan. Michelle sent me a photo of a group of us in Japan. Its actually quite nice, because I apparently had shaved for the photo. Plus it actually has me in front of the camera, as opposed to behind it. Thanks Bonnie for giving the photo to Michelle, who gave it to me, who put it here. Yeah.

Ben has been going to a lot of 'Job Training' field trips where someone, or some company, tries to help comp sci majors get jobs. For the most part they've been a complete waste of time, though there is the occasional side benefit. Like free pens, or free techie goodies. For instance this wonderful USB light that Ben got this past week. These have been around for several years, its just a light at the end of a bendie stick which is powered by USB. I paid Ben $0.25 for it. It was worth every penny. Now I can light up my computer when I... actually, it has no real use. Its just a lot of fun for $0.25.

Last night I watched The Godfather Part 3 which is one of the most under rated movies ever. Sure its no where near as good as the first two movies, but by itself its quite good. I think I may watch all three of them on our big Spring Break Trip, seeing how we'll have about 50+ hours of driving to do.

Heidi, Loren, Laura, and I went out for Mexican food and a movie tonight. Or as I like to put it, a whole lot of Margarita and a movie. We ended up seeing the movie Robots which was by the same people who made Ice Age, and the majority of the movie was just subtle adult humor which the kids would never get. Gotta love these new animated flicks. More of the adults then the kinds.

My badminton team is still undefeated, mostly because the beast player in class was out with pink eye the day we played his doubles team. Yeah, we're just that good.

Only at Gustavus could I forget my backpack at lunch, and then when dinner comes around I go to the cafeteria and see my bad in the same spot I left it. Me:"Is that my backpack?" Ben: "I think so."

Comments were messed up for about a day, they are now fixed. As if anyone noticed. Besides my father that is, who took great offense when he thought I had banned him from commenting.

Lee and I printed off a a bunch of photos on nice 8 x 10 photo paper for the International Photo Contest here on campus. I'm planning on submitting this one, just because a its the one I like as well as the one everyone I show my group of photos likes. Lee is submitting a very cool photo he took of his father, on the beach, at sunset. Very, very, nice.

Nothing is more fun then doing the Cha-cha to a song that sounds why to much like a pep-band version of the Rolling Stones song Satisfaction. Heidi is very embarrassed by my singing along to the music in class. As she should be.

Command & Conquer: Generals is a very great real time strategy computer game. Now the expansion pack, Zero Hour, is a really solid addition to the game. It adds a whole bunch of new units to all three countries, such as the dirt bike for the GLA. It adds a bunch of new upgrades and special attacks. The single player missions are really fun and challenging. Plus theres a new mode called "Challenge" which pits you against a 'General' who has special units and tactics, while you pick the 'General' you like the best. A very nice way to add some more single player action to the game. Multiplayer is something I've yet to try out, only because no one around here wants to play it. Game performance has gone up in the expansion, my 1.33 ghz Powerbook with 768 RAM and a Geforce 5200 go was playing adequately at 800 x 600 and medium quality graphics. Moving that down to low quality cleared up any problems and unless I had a very graphics intense thing going on the game ran just fine. Now if only I could get Doom 3 to run on here.

My weekend went like this, more or less. On Friday I went back to Sioux Falls for the night. I was in need of a sleeping bag and a cooler, plus who could ever pass up a chance of hanging out with their mother (and WILSON!!!!!). Not much happened in Sioux Falls, expect that I did play with Wilson and Murphy a lot and ate Indian Food on Saturday. Mmmmmm Indian food is soooo goood.

I guess I came back on Saturday and helped Zach clean the section. It was really dirty. Winter does that to a place. Zach will make someone a good house husband some day. Heidi and I then went and checked out the campus movie, because no one can pas up a free movie, and we're broke. Or I am. Anyhow we saw Kinsey which was good, better then I expected. Then again I did happen to read up on it a lot before I actually went and saw it. To think a lot of conservative groups today blame Kinsey (the man) for the sexually revolution, STDs, teen pregnancy, homosexuality, and just about everything else going on today.

The Moody Blues are occupying my time these days. Or my music listening. Good stuff.

My new iPod battery was sent to my parents house, yet another reason for me to go home, and now I have power. Yeah, 10 hours of battery life for only $25 does beat the 30 minutes or so I was getting before. I guess the real thanks I should be giving is to Ben who was the only one who could figure out how to get my iPod open. See I could find directions on how to open up every other single model of iPod built, except mine. Ben's the man when it comes to breaking things open. Kinda like the Hulk.

So thanks to an article in my local campus newspaper everyone found out that a certain Dean on our campus has recommended that our college replace our Japanese Studies program (and inevitably our Japanese language classes) with an Asian studies program. This is the same guy that got rid of the Asian History position on campus a year ago, got rid of one of the Japanese professors a year ago, and who also has recommended that we get rid of the Dance program on campus. If the man had done any research into any of this and given any thought into this our campus would be increasing our Japanese language program and adding more Asian languages. First off we have more people studying Japanese on campus then German or Russian and more Japanese studies majors then German or Russian. Nationally Japanese is the largest studied non western language and the 5th popular. Between 1996 and 2002 it had the highest increase in enrollment, up a full 21%! Clearly there is a national interest in Japanese. Do I need to remind people that Japan has the third largest economy in the world and is a very important economic and political partner with the US. What gets me is that we killed the Asian History Position in our History Department, because we all know that half the world's history isn't important. But we do need 5 European history positions, and a Swedish history position. Maybe I'm bias because I'm a history major, but really, you'd think that in today's economy and political atmosphere that we at Gustavus would be beefing up our Asian Studies. China alone should be scaring everyone into learning more. Thank goodness the faculty doesn't support this at all, but its so weird that this is being brought up. I really need to get off my ass and write an article for our crappy GAC newspaper.

Which means I have no respect. Even auctioning off Jared is useless, seeing as how no one really listens. Except Nate. And he bid a penny on Jared's cute ass. Luckily they just installed (or are installing) two short range AM transmitters right now. So now campus will be able to hear us, at least, a lot easier.

My website is now being listed on other blog indexing pages as a place that contains nude photos of various teen stars. If you've come here for that, man, you and I are both out of luck. I've only got some ugly ass photos of my room mates. Believe me, they are ugly.

Ben bought Star Fox Assault (from here on SFA), and I beat it in about 3 and a half hours. I feel so let down. If there was one game on the SNES I loved, it was Star Fox. If there was one game on the N64 I loved, it was Star Fox 64. Both were super great console space fighter games, and I had hoped the new one for the Game Cube would be equal or better. I'm not a big gamer, but this game (had it been good) would have made me buy a Game Cube.

Brief History of Star Fox. 1993 brought us Star Fox, which runs on the SNES. Its power is the Super FX chip, which gives it the power to make great 3D environments made out of blocks. Clearly a new age has come about. Its a classic Rail Space shooter, but has some cool abilities and nice stages. It gave you the option of flying three separate route with different levels. 1997 comes out with Star Fox 64. This one allows you to fly around in a 3D environments with good graphics and you have a lot of levels, a tank, a sub, and several large free flying areas. A very awesome space shooter with a fun multiplayer mode for up to 4 people. It also came with the a rumble pack for an added bonus. Then come the end of 2004 and Star Fox Assault comes out for the Game Cube. Great graphics, lots of multiplayer, and my list of what I hate. (I'll leave out the Star Fox 2 game that only came out in Japan, but now you know there was one.)

Lets list the good and the bad of Star Fox Assault.
The Good: It looks great. But I guess a new game system would do that for you. The multiplayer is great. Especially when I can convince Ben and Zach to do Arwings only.. Many maps, lots of cool options. Being on foot, in a tank, in a plane. That sort of thing.
The Bad: Linear Game Play. Even with the SNES version you could chose between three different paths to take, each with different levels. The N64 Version took it a step further where, depending on if you did certain things on a level, you could take different paths that branch out even further. No game was dull. SFA for the Cube is one route, no change up, limited game play. Which is why it only took me 3.5 hours to beat. The N64 version allowed you to have several missions where you could be in a tank, and one where you were in a sub. Very fun, but was not the focus of the game. SFA has you walking around on the ground with a blaster more then anything else. Not in space, not in a tank. Sure the option to switch between all three is cool on several levels is nice, but man, you spend 2/3s of the game not in a plane. WTF. Whats even worse is the voice acting. It was poor at best throughout the game. Could they not have just brought back the same people who did the N64 version? Or paid more then $5 to get it all done? Is it too much to ask? Maybe they should have done a direct remake of the N64 version. That would have been 10x better. Hell, maybe just port it over directly and add more multiplayer. Would have been much better.

So to recap all of this. Good: Muliplayer, looks. Bad: Gameplay, not actually flying, voice acting, short, easy.

I'm heading home this weekend to pick up some gear and a new battery for my iPod. Plus some serious Wilson time. WILSONNNNNNNNNNNN! So the current plan the guys and I have for spring break is to head to Baltimore where Ben's brother and a friend live. From there we're going to spend some time in DC. Maybe a day or two seeing stuff, though it is a shit hole. Next we're going to go to New York New York. For no real reason. Just because. I think we're going to spend a day or two in Boston staying with a former roomie's family. See some sites, have some lobster, maybe some clam chowder. From there we'll probably hit Niagra Falls and maybe stop for a day in Toronto.